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Ok, so I bought an R34 RB25DE NEO at the beginning of the year, and I knew it had an oil leak, but its really getting to me now, and I'm thinking of engine swapping.

When I bought the car, I cleaned the rocker covers and put some gasket maker on them to stop the leak, which worked for about a week then started leaking again.

A few months later I bought new rocker gaskets from the Nissan Dealership to stop the leak, and spent a day scraping the gasket maker out of everywhere.
A month later the oil warning light came on, so I topped up with oil and tightened the rocker cover to about 12nm to clamp it shut, but a week later the warning light came on.

The crescent seals at the back were solid in place, but there was a lot of oil around them so I forced them out and bought another set of gaskets with the half-moon seals.

Now it's been a month and the warning light is on again, and I can see a leak around the bolts at the rear.

I really want to +T this car, but don't want the oil leak.
I followed the manual saying tighten the gasket to 5.5nm then later tighten to 7.5nm.
Any suggestions?

I'm really sick of it. The only thing I can do now is to take out the gaskets and put a coating of gasket maker in, but I doubt it would work, and was annoying as hell to scrape off.
I bought all the gaskets at the Nissan dealer and it would take 2 weeks to order more from Australia.

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First off are you sure that its the cam cover gaskets that's leaking that much oil? sound way too much for it to be a badly fitting (warped)cam cover.

Second when you say the warning light came on, I am presuming its the oil pressure light? as AFAIK there is no oil level light, and if that is the case then you have probably already sustained damage to the engine bearings, so personally I would be looking to swap the motor.

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This is the same thing that happened to me, my oil leak was on my exhaust side. When we eliminated some of the oil from coming out of the tap pit covers it started to leak between the head and block right by #5 and #6 Pistons. When we took apart the engine #5 ring landing came out in pieces. My # 5 plug was also drenched in oil. Hope this helps you

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Yeah, I noticed it's only on the exhaust side near the rear also. I bought some black gasket maker today and will give that a try on the weekend.
And can I re-use the silicon/rubber gasket? I was told that some can't be re-used.

When the engine warning light comes on, I put about a cup of oil in, then after 5km of driving the light goes away, so I assume it is warning of low pressure.
I do about 20km to work and back each day plus a bit of "spirited driving" around empty roads every now and then, but I always check the rockers and a day or two after seeing oil around, the warning comes on. Had been bone dry last week, but I raced a holden and then noticed some oil leaking.
I know the car was thrashed before I bought er, but I thought the RB was bulletproof like a 4age.

Edit: Is it safe to add a turbo if the bearings are going? I'm a pair of wheel spacers away from LVV certifying all my mods, and the turbo is the last part. If I add my turbo now, then I could swap in an RB25DET or RB30DET later without the govt noticing, since it would have a cert plate saying it's RB25DE+T.

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Looks like I'll be searching for a new motor.
But if it's the piston rings, then maybe I could find some replacement or forged pistons..
But probably safest way is to get a cheap 25de then use my +T parts. (25det is $3000, 25de is $400).

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Just in case anyone finds this thread:
My problem was that I looked in a workshop manual to find the torque for the bolts which said 5.5nm then re-tighten to 7.5nm.
I found a workshop manual supplement that said 2.0nm first pass, then 4.0nm second. So far there have been no more oil leaks from the valve covers with the lighter (4nm) torque.

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